The described invention relates in general to single and multiwell plates used for cell culture or other purposes, and more specifically to a cell culture plate that includes a bottom portion that has been coated with growth-enhancing polymer fibers and a top portion that has been bonded to the bottom portion in a manner that creates one or more hermetically sealed culturing wells.
Historically, cell culture has been performed in vitro using a variety of containers including glass Petri dishes as well as polystyrene dishes and multiwell plates. Plastic dishes and plates have typically been manufactured by extrusion processes or compression molding to form various shapes and configurations. Recently, more complex culture plates have been produced wherein the bottom culture surface is glass and the sidewalls are polystyrene or polypropylene. Certain relatively advanced adhesives are used to join these dissimilar materials together and form strong, reliable bonds, hopefully without deleteriously affecting cell growth. However, any contaminates or particulate matter found on the bonding surfaces can significantly impair or prevent effective bonding of the two materials. Therefore, significant care must be taken to ensure that mating surfaces are clean before attempting to create a bond between them. While effective bonding may be achieved, the biocompatibility of the adhesives used may not be optimal. Furthermore, the various reagents and other chemicals used in standard cell culture may have a deleterious effect on the integrity of the bonds formed between the materials used in the culture plates and may even leach chemical ingredients out of the adhesive and into the culture well. Therefore, there is an ongoing need for an improved process for effectively joining the components of cell culture plates to one another without negatively affecting cell growth.